In The City Of Brotherly Love, There’s About To Be A Casino War

Earlier this week, Stadium Casino LLC obtained the permit they need to begin demo on a lot in South Philadelphia’s sports district that is currently home to a Holiday Inn hotel.

According to Philly.com, the development will clear the land and build a casino, making it the second casino within the city limits. SugarHouse is and was none too pleased about the plans. The existing Pennsylvania casino even launching an appeal to block the permit from being awarded to their new competitors.

“The permit was issued a little more than two months after the operator of a rival venue, SugarHouse Casino, dropped an appeal of the gaming license granted to Cordish and Greenwood’s group following the enactment of a new state law that undercut the challenge,” Philly.com reported.

New casino will be name Live! Hotel & Casino

Cordish Cos and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment are the two firms which comprise Stadium Casino LLC.

Earlier this week, Cordish released details about the project. The statement revealed both specifics on the property as well as conceptual drawings of the casino.

According to the company’s project page for the property, Live! is a $600 million development that will include:

A hotel

Gaming floor

Up to five restaurants and nightclubs.

“The project will create the first comprehensive gaming, resort, entertainment and sports destination in the United States, making it a true regional destination,” the site said.

The plans for Live! have been listed on the site for several months, but it wasn’t until they obtained the permit that the project went from concept to concrete.

Barring any setbacks over funding or permits, the project should be ready to open in 2020.

SugarHouse’s reign over Philly coming to an end

Philadelphia has been SugarHouse territory since casinos were first allowed in the state in 2006. In 2017, Sugarhouse held a solid third place in Pennsylvania’s table games revenue. It was middle-of-the-pack in slots revenue. In both of those categories together, SugarHouse brought in more than $296 million in gross revenue.

All this to say that SugarHouse is one of the state’s major players. It is certainly the reigning king of Philly. Exactly how much of that revenue will walk into the competing casino is yet to be seen. After all, predictions are tenuous, at best, but there’s a good chance their numbers will drop. Hence, the appeal to block the license.

As far as revenue predictions go, the state’s 12 casinos will be competing for the biggest portion from the dinner table. While Sands and Parx are the state’s biggest revenue-earners and SugarHouse has formidable numbers, the launch of a new flagship casino as well as the possibility of up to 10 satellite casinos could do some damage to their yearly gross revenue.

That possibility became more of a reality when Stadium Gaming was the highest bidder for a satellite casino they’ll build just 40 miles away from Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County. It remains to be seen if and when SugarHouse will make a move for one of the eight remaining satellite licenses.